20 March, 2011

World Title Boxing: No gripes from Casey; no contest for KO king Rigondeaux:

'Big Bang' bites the dust

Leading up to and indeed for the entire evening of March 19th, until two minutes 38 seconds into the fight, most people had suspended if not their belief in Willie Casey, then their logic. It was, after all, boxing, as Casey had said all week, and anything could happen.

But Saturday night in Citywest was a short, sharp illustration of brutal realism.

Once the fight had begun, fantasy or suspense were nowhere to be seen.

For a stunning Cuban super bantamweight called Guillermo “Rigo” Rigondeaux, his career profile arcs even higher into stardom along with the WBA world title belt Casey had sought to take from him.

Rigondeaux: World Super Bantamweight king

For the Limerickman, a review of where he goes from here will take some time to work out after all the promise, the hype, the speed and the technical excellence came to visit him in one swirling round.

“Everyone thought he’d come out and go around the ring,” said Rigo’s American coach Ronnie Shields, swirling a finger like a dancer. “He don’t do that. Anytime you come to anyone else’s country and you have the skill set of Rigo, you take the guy out. No one’s going to beat this guy.”
“For sure I wanted to finish it, he had the whole home town,” said the Cuban afterwards. “That body shot is one of my favourite punches.”
Rigo had achieved in a few minutes what his coach had asked him to do. He had totally silenced what was two minutes earlier a screaming, heaving Convention Centre in west Dublin.

There are those still wondering, and perhaps Casey too, how he got to this chance after only 11 professional fights.

Casey stunned after boxing lesson from a master tutor

His difficulty was in coming up against a fighter, managed by Corkman Gary Hyde, who had become the world champion in only his seventh pro fight.
His first was in May 2009, his eighth on Saturday night.
“He was letting me know he was standing there with me,” said Casey. “He’s one of the world’s best amateurs and he brought all that in with him and he used it.”
No gripes from Casey. No contest for champion Rigondeaux.